volumes

Though it has been over two hundred and fifty years since Sir Henry Main first published his seminal work, Ancient Law: Its Connection to the Early History of Society, and Its Relation to Modern Ideas, the field of comparative law has remained vibrant and responsive to topical questions. Founded in the age of the nation state, comparative law now faces new challenges as posed by internationalization, globalization, Europeanization and the consequent blurring of national boundaries, both geographically as well as theoretically.

The volume comprises two parts, the first focusing on theoretical and methodological issues within comparative law. The second part addresses specific topics as analyzed from a comparative law perspective. The authors contributing to this volume represent four countries, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, leaving a distinctive Scandinavian mark on the discussions presented.

408 p.

The notion ‘Law and Development’ demarcates a research field closely associated with international efforts to promote economic and social improvements in developing countries, as well as in transition and post-conflict societies, through the means of law and legal development assistance. In a broader sense, Law and Development encompasses theoretical enquiries into the role of law for societal transformation, including studies on legal transplants, law reform and legal change.
The Nordic countries have been at the forefront of legal development cooperation, both through national agencies like SIDA, NORAD and DANIDA, and through active involvement in international organisations and their development programs. The ambition in this volume is to take stock of the prolific scholarship on Law and Development in the Nordic countries and to give a Scandinavian perspective on the debate in this vibrant research field.

473 p.

Despite a regrettable lack of contributions from Norway the volume provides a reasonably broad and representative view of environmental law research in this region. One may argue that a Scandinavian, or Nordic, perspective on environmental law is made particularly interesting by the fact that the countries of this region have a reputation, and perhaps even more a self-perception, of being champions of environmental concerns and environmentally friendly policies and technologies. Whether this perception tallies with reality in all areas is contestable but the mere idea may have provided a special soil for the development of environmental law and environmental law research.
The region also has a particular legacy in the form of its geographic and personal links to the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (The Stockholm Conference) and the World Commission on Environment and Development (The Brundtland Commission).
These historic occurrences contributed greatly to pushing environmental issues up national and international agendas. Both also made a strong case for acknowledging the fundamental importance of the environment, including what today is known as ecosystems services, to human society and thus its (direct or indirect) significance for all areas of law and policy.

397 p.

Soft law in this context is understood in a broad sense. The authors investigate soft law such as recommendations, good practice standards, opinions, ethical principles, declarations, guidelines, board decisions, codes of conduct etc., and also “hard law” with a “soft” character. Norms issued by both private and public bodies are analyzed, and the volume contains articles which deal with national as well as international soft law.
In several articles soft law is observed from a general perspective and both problems and advantages related to soft law as a normative instrument are addressed.

308 p.

Commercial law in this context is understood in a narrow sense, i.e., the majority of the contributions deal with core contract law problems or are concerned with contract law related matters, such as choice of law and public procurement issues. In addition, some articles address issues related to personal property and insolvency law.

This volume has been produced in cooperation with The Stockholm Centre for Commercial Law, a research organisation established at the Department of Law, Stockholm University in 2000. The aim of the Stockholm Centre for Commercial Law is to promote scientific research and doctoral studies in the field of commercial law in a broad sense. Among other things, the Centre initiates, leads and co-ordinates research projects, as well as publishes and disseminates the results, collects research material, and organises scholarly lectures, seminars and symposia.

346 p.

In recent years the advent of so called social media is one illustration. A renewed focus on security issues, now often referred to as Cyber Defence (prompted by large scale intrusion and overloading of IT resources in connection to international conflicts) is another example. Noticeable is also the formation of new political parties in some 15 countries, initiated as a reaction to new legislation concerning file sharing and digital surveillance on the internet. The pace of change is in no way slowing down and presently many countries are experiencing legal and political debates concerning on-line publication of classified documents, so called street pictures and the reluctance of IT companies to make their systems open for external developers. In addition, a myriad of legal issues relating to previously recognized sub domains within the field of ICT and law have to be handled as the technical presuppositions continue to develop. The editorial board of Scandinavian Studies in Law is attached to the Stockholm University Law Faculty. The contributors to this volume are all scholars and practitioners active in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, countries which have long been in the forefront when it comes to the use of ICT.

442 p.

The ambition is to give an overview of the current situation, especially as it has manifested itself in the Scandinavian countries. More precisely the volume originates from a seminar on freedom of expression and its limits, held at the Stockholm University Law Faculty in February 2008. The freedom of expression seminar had in turn been instigated by several events which at that time attracted much attention in the media and public debate. One such event was the publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper in 2005.   Parallel with discussions on the possible limits to certain freedoms, an urge for the recognition of new rights has emerged strongly in various international forums. The right to drinking water is an example of the latter. Some of these new rights have already received a degree of recognition, whilst others still need further elaboration.   The articles in this volume address both the limitations to already established rights and the proliferation of new rights. An overall impression of the conclusions of the studies is that both the proliferation and the limitation of individual rights and freedoms have positive and negative aspects. The increase in the number of rights can hardly jeopardize individual freedoms, but it can lead to the “inflation” of rights and the subsequent watering-down of the implementation of existing rights. Limitation to rights and freedoms may for different reasons be justified under certain circumstances. There is, however, a risk of serious violation of the rights if limitation is destined to lead to the imposition of an authoritarian political system.

390 p.

Criminal law is a core element of the legal system. The topic also attracts much interest from politicians and the public in general. Spectacular crimes, sentencing and the rationality of the criminal system are intensely observed and extensively discussed in the media. Undoubtedly criminal law sometimes also functions as a survival tool for politicians, as demands for more harsh treatments and harder punishments always tend to (or at least tend to be expected to) attract large groups of voters. Criminal law is as well a theoretical field of law, in the sense that many of its issues cannot be discussed and “solved” without use of knowledge from other disciplines, such as philosophy, psychology and sociology. The “general part” of criminal law – the idea of which is prominent in the Scandinavian countries – must, when handling issues such as causality, action and intent, stay open to such influences. Consequently, criminal law is a multifaceted and important field of study undergoing constant change. Against this background the editors of Sc.St.L. are pleased to present a collection with a large number of contributions on several aspects of criminal law currently being debated on the international scene.

462 p.

Sociology of law is a branch of legal science which provides an external perspective on law and the legal system. The approach has both scientific and practical consequences for the study of law. The external perspective leads the scholar to raise other than dogmatic questions about the proper application of law in different situations. Noticeable is also that there is a distinction between sociology of law and socio-legal studies or legal sociology. In the socio-legal perspective the sociological part seeks merely to contribute to an understanding of law on its own terms. Legal sociology has thus been labelled an auxiliary science to legal science. Sociology of law, on the other hand, claims to be an academic subject in its own right.

446 p.

The publication of this volume is well timed. In the European sphere constitutional law is currently much debated, especially as a consequence of the European Union (EU) integration project and its accompanying demands for constitutional revisions and adoption of super governmental principles. The impact of the project is much discussed and the opinions vary. The process also has initiated referendums in several countries, and the recent failure to ratify the new Constitutional Treaty has prompted a renewed debate on the legitimacy of European integration. Simultaneously a number of events in which several constitutional principles appear to clash with religious and ethical concerns have been given much attention in the media. Several recent incidents have also stirred up debates concerning the limits of constitutional principles and the need for revisions. The Danish publication of Muhammad caricatures, frequent clashes between principles concerning freedom of the press versus privacy, minority rights, and the protection of religious freedom are just a few examples of this. In the first part of this 52nd volume of Scandinavian Studies of Law (Sc.St.L.) 17 articles on constitutional law are presented. The second part is a documentation of the second annual conference of the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS) Why Europe? Possibilities and limits of European integration which was held in Stockholm 16 November 2006. The purpose of the conference was to provide scholarly perspectives on the sources of legitimacy, the democratic credentials and the constitutional alternatives for the EU. The contributions in this section are further elaborations of the speeches delivered at the conference. In addition, in order to provide a background to the discussions, this volume presents English versions of the Constitutions of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden

500 p.